WITH THE NEW ZEALANDERS.

Taranaki Daily News, 5 October 1916, Page 5

WITH THE NEW ZEALANDERS.

OTAGO MEN IN HOT CORNER, (Official from the New Zealand Official War Correspondent, Capt. Malcolm Ross). September 21). Since my last cable message the veterans have pushed their offensive farther fovward, capturing a section of twa trenches that were barring progress to left of Gueudeconrt. Starting from the factory conic]-, a strong point that they had previously taken, the Otago, Canterbury, and Auckland men advunced behind a barrage. The G'unterbuvys and some of the Aucklandcrs entered the trenches without great difficulty, but the other Auckland men, with some of the Otagos, were stopped by enemy wire, and came under machine-gun fire. This section received reinforcements from the Wellingtons, but after stubborn lighting night fell with he enemv still holding an angle in the position that had been captured to the right and left. On the following day the Rifle Brigade reinforced Auckland and Canterbury, and, after further fighting, the position was made secure. There was some confused hut gallant lighting in front of the enemy wire. In the first day of the offensive the Rifle Brigade- captured 422 prisoners in Flers and the vicinity. The battlefield still bears many signs of the fury of our attack. In a switch trench the German dead in places were lying shoulder to shoulder. When I visited the battlefield yesterday the Germans were shelling Flers and Gueudeconrt and certain areas of country we had captured. It was a cheering ■L'M to see the cavalry patrols advancing beyond Flers upon Gueudeconrt. During all this fighting the stretcherbearers and runners in the fire zone did heroic work, several of the latter, though, wounded, got their messages to the company commanders, and then dropping from exhaustion.